inquisity » Andrew

First test of Google Voice Voicemail-to-Text

Andrew — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 04:24:58 +0000

…yields somewhat “mixed” results:

Hey buddy. It’s still Matt, I’m just trying to move a voice wanna see how good it is so I guess issue. Momo’s will start some stuff and seeing nowhere because and but over all things are going well. Talk to you sooner. Goodbye.

The actual message:

Hey buddy it’s Stu, I’m just trying out Google Voice, wanted to see how good it is. Um, I guess I should mumble as well as some stuff and see you know what it does with that. But overall things are going well, talk to you soon, Goodbye! Hahahahahahahahaa.

What’s interesting (and brilliant) is a little option I noticed in the lower right-hand corner of the message on the Google Voice website:

This way they can collect information about voicemails that cause their text conversion system to fail. In my mind this is one of the main competencies of Google: consistent collection of user feedback.

Now if only I could port my current number over to Google Voice…

Simple videos about the financial crises

Andrew — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 06:53:19 +0000

I found one of these videos from a blog post by Keith Ferrazzi, and thought I’d put both of them up. The videos were posted by a Enspire, a company which appears to be selling financial education for the common man. Seems admirable…I hope people care enough to learn.

—–

Understanding the Financial Crisis

The Mortgage Banking Meltdown

An advertisement from Best Buy I never expected to see

Andrew — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:33:12 +0000

Definitely not congruent with the powerful brand Best Buy has spent millions building. It makes sense to me that Best Buy would sell laundry machines and refrigerators, because Sears and the like have gone out of business and no one else has stepped into that market.

But hostestly, I thought that email was spam at first or a joke of some kind.

Focus on the problem, not the solution

Andrew — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 04:41:16 +0000

Recently I posted on some thoughts I had about a talk David Heinemeier Hansson gave. He talked about the importance of focusing on problems that other people have and providing solutions to those problems.

I just watched a video (skip to 42:45) with Seth Godin from 2006. He gave a talk to some Google employees, and at the end opened it up for questions. Someone who worked on Google Maps asked why they hadn’t been more successful in taking market share from Mapquest. Seth’s answer: “We didn’t have a maps problem.” Just a refresher: Google Maps was revolutionary in that it was the first service to let you drag the map around with your cursor and see satellite footage overlayed with streets). Google Maps was tough to print out, which is what most of us do when we look up directions online. So while people were impressed with the snazzy features, they ultimately used other services like Mapquest once the novelty wore off. Simply put, we didn’t a big enough maps problem.

Now it’s 2008, and I don’t think Google Maps has changed much. I will say that even though Mapquest has its own draggable map with satellite footage, Google Maps has a better interface. I use Google Maps when I want to see the area where my destination is, and Mapquest when I need directions. Of course, with GPS, Mapquest’s days may be numbered.

Why Starbucks, Why?

Andrew — Wed, 28 May 2008 03:11:27 +0000

You may haven noticed Starbucks has changed its logo. The idea is to go back to its “roots” to help Starbucks compete with smaller coffee shops that are eating away at market share. But the logo is just so dang ugly. Not only is the green logo much more clear and visually pleasing, it also has the benefit of not pissing off certain Christians (hint: look at the mermaid’s chest).

The old “new” logo:

The old logo: